Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Jackson

The plaintiff was a 59 year-old male employee who was fired following his failure to disclose documents that he received from a customer. He filed suit in the Shelby County Circuit Court alleging both age and sex discrimination in violation of the Tennessee Human Rights Act. He asserted that a female employee in a similar situation was treated more favorably and that the firing was a pretext for replacing him with a younger female employee.

The plaintiff worked at-will as a sales representative for the defendant. Shortly after she started working there, she discovered that she was pregnant and informed her supervisor. Shortly after that, her supervisor informed her that her yearly salary would be halved, allegedly because she had failed to meet sales quotas. When she contacted the CEO (with whom she had interviewed) about her pay reduction, her supervisor informed her that it was inappropriate to go over his head.

The plaintiff was a police officer with the Humboldt Police Department. While off duty, she ran into an ex-boyfriend whom she had a protective order against. Based on this encounter, she filed a criminal charge against him for violating the order. The Chief of police commenced an internal affairs investigation into her charges, and the ex-boyfriend filed a criminal charge against her for filing a false charge. While both charges were pending, the plaintiff informed the Chief of Police that she was pregnant.